Topic 4: Workforce segregation

Women hold 46 percent of all jobs in NSW, but their share of specific occupational groups and industries varies considerably.

Many men and women work in jobs where the majority of other workers are of the same sex – a pattern known as gender segregation. In Australia these informal divisions between ‘women’s work’ and ‘men’s work’ have been relatively stable over time, with some exceptions including certain management and professional jobs where women have increased their representation in recent decades.

Gender segregation in major occupational and industry groups is reported at 4.1 and 4.2, while 4.3 focuses on the most male-dominated jobs in the NSW workforce – those with 25 percent women or less. Women’s representation in the jobs making up the ‘technicians and tradespeople’ occupational group is discussed in the focus topic for this chapter.